Orphaned burn victim leaves Thousand Oaks to return home to Uganda

KAREN QUINCY LOBERG/THE STAR
Mason Sokolosky (left) and his brother Josh Sokolosky (right) flank Adolf Baguma, who stands upright with ease after five years of being troubled by severe burns to his legs. After treatment, Baguma is going back to Uganda.

Karen Quincy Loberg

Burn victim Adolf Baguma, 12, is scheduled to arrive home in his native Uganda on Thursday after leaving Los Angeles International Airport on Wednesday night with his chaperone, Eva Mbabazi.

Adolf arrived at LAX on Nov. 19 in a wheelchair. When he and Mbabazi land in Uganda, Adolf will stand and walk off the plane.

This is the end of his stay with a Thousand Oaks family while undergoing surgery, treatment and rehabilitation for crippling burns he suffered when he was about 5 years old.

Los Angeles attorney Laine Wagenseller, 45, discovered Adolf about a year ago on a mission trip to Uganda. With funding from the Children's Burn Foundation, Adolf was able to come to the U.S. for surgery and treatment by Dr. Peter Grossman, director of the Grossman Burn Centers in Los Angeles.

While Adolf was in Southern California, he stayed with Wagenseller's brother, Scott Wagenseller and his family.

"I think of six months ago when he couldn't speak a word of English," Laine Wagenseller said. "Now he's talking back like crazy."

When he met Adolf, the boy was walking on all fours or moving around upright with a swaying gait caused by two bent legs. Untreated burns to the back of his legs caused one leg to bend at a 90-degree angle and the other to bend at a 45-degree angle.

Laine Wagenseller learned that both of Adolf's parents were dead, so he had been sent to live with relatives. Mbabazi said a 15-year-old aunt had punished Adolf by tying him to a tree and beating his legs with burning banana leaves. At 7, he was turned out to the streets to fend for himself. When an orphanage found him a year later, he had been drinking from gutters and eating from the trash.

"He did not have someone to take care of him. People would say ‘He's a bad boy,' " Mbabazi said at Adolf's farewell party on April 14. "His clothes were dirty. He was somebody who spent one year without taking a shower."

The first shower Adolf ever took indoors was at Scott Wagenseller's upscale home in a quiet Thousand Oaks neighborhood. He laughed at how the water splashed down on his head. Mbabazi marveled at cooking that could be done indoors.

Adolf's closest friend was Hunter Wagenseller, who was 6 when Adolf arrived. The other Wagenseller children are Kelly, 5; Maverick, almost 3; and Hayden, 20 months.

Scott Wagenseller said Adolf's stay hasn't been without struggles, such as Hunter's reaction to being dethroned as the oldest boy in the house.

During Adolf's farewell party, friends from a Ugandan church in Los Angeles and classmates and teachers from the Westlake Village elementary school Adolf attended got up and shared stories of the boy.

"The first time we took him to the movies, we took him to see ‘Monsters, Inc.' in 3-D," said playmate Josh Sokolosky, 11. "He was laughing and wiggling in his seat and sticking his hands out trying to catch everything."

Adolf's teachers, Marlene Brostoff and Sandy Rowlett, remembered the day Adolf figured out the electric pencil sharpener, the copier and an iPod. His energy and 500-watt smile won him fans almost immediately, despite the language barrier.

"There was a large posse that followed Adolf around in a chunk," Rowlett said.

During his party, Laine Wagenseller asked Adolf if he would like to get up and say anything, but Adolf ran into the yard and cried, then returned and sidled up to Scott Wagenseller, linking hands and watching Laine stand in the middle of the living room and speak to the party guests.

"We've talked about how this makes us sad and makes us cry," Laine Wagenseller said. "I said, ‘You have to go back there and be a leader.' "

The Wagensellers plan to stay in touch with Adolf, with Laine Wagenseller planning to visit Adolf at the orphanage in June.

Grossman praised Adolf for his courage during his first stay in a hospital, the pain and multiple surgical procedures to remove scar tissue and straighten his legs. Skin then was removed from his abdomen and grafted to the burn area.

Adolf has been fitted with pressure garments for his legs that he must wear until he heals, Grossman said in an email.

"They aid in decreasing the formation of keloids and scars," Grossman wrote. "He also has special orthotics made for his shoes that will aid him in posture and ambulation."

Scott Wagenseller's wife, Ashley, said she's sad to see Mbabazi and Adolf go after being a part of the family for months.

Adolf had a party when he turned 12 on April 4, and last week, the Wagensellers took him to Disneyland.

"We're going to the happiest place on Earth," she said to Mbabazi as they drove to Anaheim.